[Click—]
The black wristwatch's hand shifted from 1 to 2.
Everything at that moment sank into darkness, as though plunging into the depths of an ocean trench.
The pain had faded away.
The wounds were healed.
All that had happened began to reset.
Until consciousness returned—until awareness awoke once more—and he opened his eyes to behold the city he had now arrived in.
An empty, lifeless, deathly silent metropolis.
"The second cycle… made it to the third day in the end."
Takumi took a deep breath, then slapped his cheeks lightly and shook his head, forcing away the exhaustion clouding his mind.
It had been far too hard.
Green, who had seemed reliable during the first cycle, had blown up disastrously and nearly ruined the whole team.
Maeda Miwa was a sly veteran player who'd hidden herself just to swoop in for the prize.
And Tanaka—he was the worst of the worst. The fast-forwarded time on the first day had already been a headache, and then on the second night he still had to find another way to torment everyone. The bastard had so many tricks up his sleeve that Takumi had practically turned half-anomalous himself before finally managing to finish him off.
So… what should he do for the next recall?
Kaguya and Maki would forget him all over again.
Maki… she wouldn't remember anything that had happened between them—neither their joint escape in the first cycle, nor the lap pillow and first kiss of the second.
What a shame.
If it all happened a third time, he wasn't sure he could bear that kind of forgetting. The feeling of having built such a good bond, only for her to remember nothing—it was hard to stay calm about it.
So what should he do?
Standing alone in the silent city, Takumi quietly pondered what he ought to do when the next cycle began. He kept planning out all sorts of routes in his mind—only to realize wearily that, no matter what he did, he would still have to fall into some of the same traps he'd already hit before. Whether it was the steps to earn their trust or the exploration of the first floor—he would have to go through it all again. Having to redo things he had already done, in every sense, filled him with frustration.
[Dong!]
The sound of a bell echoed at that moment.
Takumi lifted his head and looked toward the enormous clock tower in the city.
Then he narrowed his eyes slightly, glancing upward with a trace of surprise at the sky.
Something fell from the sky.
From blur to clarity, it took only a few brief seconds.
Takumi saw what those things were.
A drenched rescue team badge.
A scalpel sharp enough to slice through bone like mud.
A blood-red cloth doll.
A human head with the skin of its face stripped away.
A puppet made from a living person whose joints had been hollowed out.
A total of five Obsession Items descended from above, circling around Takumi twice before flying straight toward his left hand.
He saw the black wristwatch on his left wrist suddenly split open, revealing a dark rift that absorbed all those items before slowly closing again.
In the next instant, Takumi understood what had happened.
Every Obsession Item that had come into contact with his blood would be taken by the black watch once it activated its recall ability—absorbed and converted into Takumi's possessions, allowing him to carry those items with him after each recall.
The items used by that woman disguised as the worthless new player, and by Tanaka—anything that had directly touched him—had all been taken. After all, at that time, his body had been severely burned, covered in torn flesh and open wounds, and when he came into contact with those Obsession Items, his blood had inevitably stained them. The only thing he hadn't obtained was the blood-red key in Tanaka's possession—but that couldn't be helped, since the bastard had been dragged away by the companions summoned through the rescue team badge.
[Dong!!]
The second chime of the bell rang out.
Takumi knew that his life now had 10 more chances to restart.
"The next cycle will be the decisive one."
Exhaling lightly, Takumi's gaze grew firm.
Though the secrets hidden within the Shirakawa Apartments had yet to be completely uncovered, all the clues had more or less converged. Only the most critical pieces remained.
He had already grasped the basic situation of all the players who had entered the Shirakawa Apartments. Though this group of teammates was outrageous to the extreme—each one more bizarre than the last, to the point that even Yamamoto Hiroshi seemed almost endearing by comparison—Takumi had thoroughly experienced all their peculiar skills.
It was time to end all of this.
[Dong!!!]
The third chime of the bell sounded.
The blood-red city began to dissolve bit by bit.
Everything around him gradually returned to darkness.
Takumi stood still, waiting for the moment when the recall would be complete.
But just then, he suddenly felt a subtle sensation coming from his arm—as if something were pulling on his left hand, guiding it toward someone.
That feeling was hard to describe in words.
He suddenly recalled all the things he had gone through together with Shijō Maki—whether it was the time they stayed together in the dark room, writing on the backs of each other's hands; or when he carried her, injured, while running through the twisted third floor; or their conversations during the second cycle, her proud smile as she hummed a tune and brought him a bowl of noodles; and finally, that kiss he could not feel while lying in her arms.
For Takumi, who had endured the pain of two cycles and four days within the Shirakawa Apartments, those memories were immeasurably precious. Without that girl's presence, he thought he would probably never have found the strength to keep moving forward—never have gathered so many clues or accomplished so much.
Yes, they were incredibly important memories—memories that could never be forgotten.
If possible, he wished never again to face the moment of losing them.
He reached out his hand, grasping toward the direction drawn by those warm memories.
In the haze, Takumi felt as though he were holding someone's hand—a small hand belonging to a proud, headstrong girl with an aura far larger than her size.
[Click—]
The black wristwatch's hand suddenly advanced from 2 to 3, as though it had consumed a part of its own power to fulfill someone's wish. Yet this time, the sound was so faint that Takumi, lost in his memories, didn't notice it at all.
In the next moment, the darkness before him completely vanished, replaced by the familiar layout of Room 204.
And of course, there was also the faint fragrance of Shinomiya Kaguya's shampoo beside him—but that wasn't important, since it wasn't as pleasant as Maki's scent. For Takumi now, compared to the always-cold-faced Kaguya, the little angel Maki was definitely the one worth rooting for. Yes, that was right—Takumi had been in love with Shijō Maki since before he was even born.
Ah, but that wasn't to say Kaguya was unreliable—her timely intervention during the first-floor exploration had been quite impressive, and as a teammate she was very dependable. It was just that, well, Takumi wasn't the Student Council President, and he didn't have a whole year to melt the ice queen slowly—so as for romance lines, perhaps he should set her aside for now.
"Hello, my name's Takumi. I suppose you could call me a veteran who's played this game twice already. Are you a newcomer?"
Rising from the bed, Takumi stepped back a few paces, then turned to face Shinomiya Kaguya, who had sat up on the bed with a wary look on her face. Smiling, he spoke with an expression utterly free of flaws—completely different from his reaction in the second cycle.
"You…"
Shinomiya Kaguya looked at Takumi and the room with a mix of confusion and wariness. For the moment, unable to grasp the situation, she remained silent, sitting on the bed without making any move.
"I know you're confused right now. Anyway, um, this is the rule sheet. It might not be entirely accurate, but it should still have some reference value. You can take a look first. As for the rest, let's talk about it once we're out. Each round of the Sacrifice Game has a certain number of players; once we regroup with the others, we can think about what to do next."
Takumi reached out and patted the rule sheet placed on the nightstand, gave it a perfunctory glance, then turned around, opened the door to the living room, picked up the wall clock, and walked straight to the front door. After opening it, he stepped into the corridor.
It was still the familiar second-floor corridor—so familiar it was practically carved into Takumi's DNA.
Yamamoto Hiroshi stood there with a terrified face, glancing around nervously. Green leaned against the door expressionlessly, watching the people emerging from their rooms. At that moment, Takumi stepped out, meeting his gaze directly. Takumi even gave him a friendly smile, which made Green pause in surprise. The Black guy, meanwhile, was trying to communicate with Yamamoto Hiroshi, speaking in a strange mix of Japanese and English.
Tanaka didn't come out?
Could it be that because that strange watch took away his Obsession Item, he no longer dared to leave the room?
While Takumi was still trying to figure out what was going on, the door to Room 208 slowly opened.
With a somewhat dazed expression, Maki carefully stepped out of the room, clutching the wall clock in her arms. Her gaze instantly locked onto Takumi.
"Hello there."
Looking at the girl who was, to him, more familiar than anyone else, Takumi's brow furrowed slightly, but in the end, he forced himself to control his expression and greeted Maki with a smile.
"Takumi-kun, you—you're all right? You're all right now?"
But Maki's next words, spoken in shock, left Takumi completely frozen.
All right?
She asked if I'm all right?
What's going on—why is she addressing me using the second-loop form of address?!
"You retained your memories… You retained your memories this time?"
That revelation was too overwhelming. Takumi's facial control collapsed entirely, and for a moment, the expression on his face was so intense it startled the others in the hallway.
Could it be that what I felt right before the rollback… somehow connected me and Maki together, allowing her to gain the same ability to retain memories through the reset as me?!
There's actually such a good thing? In that case, this loop, I'll definitely—
[Boom!]
A violent explosion blew apart the door and wall of Room 210.
Before Takumi could recover from his shock, the battered and wounded Tanaka stumbled out of the ruined doorway, rolling and crawling in a pitiful state, his expression more furious and vivid than anything he had shown in the past two loops.
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